Wegmans to Open Disputed Wine Shop

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — The Wegmans Food Market here is carving out a portion of Center Store to accommodate a contiguous wine shop set to open next month.

The specialty beer, wine and liquor store will inhabit space equal in length to about eight aisles formerly occupied by frozen foods, according to reports.

JWG Fine Wine and Spirits, controlled by Wegman family member Joan Wegman Goldberg, will operate the shop. Access will be limited to an outside entrance.

Wegmans sought to build the wine store within the food market, but a township ordinance barring liquor sales in supermarkets compromised its plan.

“Shoppers in the supermarket will need to exit the grocery store to gain access to the liquor store and vice versa,” said Woodbridge municipal clerk John Mitch.

Wegmans also met resistance from the New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance, which charges the chain is using family members to evade the state’s liquor license limit of two per entity.

Goldberg is the sister of Wegmans Chief Executive Officer Danny Wegman and daughter of the Rochester, N.Y.-based retailer’s late founder, Robert Wegman.

Wegmans Food Market has maxed out its New Jersey license allowance, using them in its Bridgewater and Princeton stores, according to reports. It operates seven supermarkets in the state.

The NJLSA attempted to block a license transfer from former holder JSW LLC, owned by Danny Wegman’s son-in-law, Jason Wehle, to Goldberg’s JWG, but was unsuccessful. JWG operates a wine shop beside the Manalapan, N.J. Wegmans.

“Wegmans has successfully circumvented the two license limitation law with the help of family members,” said Paul Santelle, president of the NJLSA. “They’ve been doing it all over the state and they’re hurting scores of businesses.”

Wehle holds liquor licenses for a stand-alone shop called Wegmans Wine, Liquor and Beer, near Wegmans’ Cherry Hill location, and leases space within Wegmans’ Mount Laurel store, according to reports. An independently-operated wine shop shares an internal passageway with Wegmans’ Ocean, N.J., store.

Wegmans is reorganizing the layout of its Woodbridge store as a new bill seeks to increase the number of
licenses a New Jersey food retailer can hold from two to 10, over 10 years.